I was never really a fan of the early Toy Story sets. I didn't like how they felt like non Lego toys. (Although that's what they were going for)

LEGO isn't a construction toy, it's building with style.

Such a good set, one of my early post-dark ages sets!

I really regret not grabbing the Pizza Planet truck as well before the prices went stupid.

The big one!

I have this set. Always enjoyed using the pull-back motor on RC. Also, the "Big One" rocket is a printed astromech torso piece, so my R2-D2's wound up having a "Big One" torso design every once in a while, lol.

I don't know if I was the first, and I know for a fact I wasn't the only one, but I combined two copies of this set with 8183 to make a functional RC RC.

@Trigger_ said:
"I never got why the PPP was so bad at the time lol."

Minifigs. Buzz had a head, armor, wing element, and bubble helmet that all had to be made in China and shipped to Europe to be packed into sets. Woody had...everything. Legs, torso assembly, and head were all shipped from China. Same for Jessie. And Rex. And Hamm. And Bullseye. The claw alien head. Lotso. Chunk. Stinky Pete's head. Twitch's head and wings. Zurg's head and torso assembly. The octopus' legs. This is a simply massive amount of one-off parts that had to be tooled up, manufactured halfway around the world, and then shipped back to Europe in little plastic bags to prevent damage in transit. Plus, there were alternate decos for several of these elements, to make dirt-stained versions of Buzz, the claw alien, Jessie, and Woody. Parts were chain-packed according to set, so you'd get a sleeve of plastic that had been compartmented off around individual or small groups of components. Green Army Men were literally the only minifigs in the entire theme that didn't require special molds in China (technically, they did include a new mold with the minifig stand, but those were packed with the other regular parts, so may have been produced in Europe).

Fast forward to 2019, and most of these parts are gone. Rex and the claw alien are the only two characters who returned unchanged. Most of the 2010 characters are simply gone, and replaced by TS4 characters. Tall characters got shortened, eliminating the need to produce long arms and legs. Molded heads got replaced with standard minifig heads for Buzz, Jessie, and Woody (though the latter two did get exclusive molded hat/hair). And ironically, Green Army Men, the only standard minifig in the 2010 run...are now trophy figs. Unprinted. Don't get me wrong, I got a bag full of them on LUGBulk that year, but it kinda sucks that they're all just standing there, unarmed.

@Rare_White_Ape:

https://brickshelf.com/gallery/PurpleDave/Town/PizzaPlanetTruck/00_pizza_planet_truck_bw_award.jpg

Rockets Explode!

Toy Story was the first movie I saw in the theater (was that really thirty years ago?!) which instilled in me a love of Pixar that abides to this day. I was so happy to see Toy Story Lego. My two favorite companies, coming together! This was the first one I bought.

@Boettner_Builds said:
"The big one!"

"'Extremely dangerous. Keep out of reach of children.' Cool!"

LEGO casually reintroduced the 2x2x2 rocket bottom mold for this set which had last been seen in 1996. Then it lasted two more years before being discontinued again. This was after storing too many old molds became verboten circa 2005. I can't recall if such a thing has ever happened again. Yes, the goat was brought back, but had minor differences and was a new mold. According to Bricklink all these rocket parts have the same part number, 4591. So were LEGO holding onto a decades old mold for 14 years, breaking their own 5 year policy, even if the countdown had started in 2005?

The best versions of Buzz and Woody LEGO has made!

Although it originally of course reminded me of the time it came out, it since mostly reminds me of a story about how it came to be.
From Adam Grabowski's bricklist about creating the set:

"That one is fun. We needed it for some presentation, I had literally 10 minutes to come up with something, and I built this and gave it away still sticky and stinkin because I painted elements. Few weeks later Nick G. makes a set out of that "10 minutes" model not changing a thing!])"

'YOU are a TOY!'

I always felt like this IP was done in such a rush off the back of Toy Story 3, as it was done when Lego finally got a Disney licence and went hard too fast in one whole year. Result: very unbalanced stock and sales and some sets having prices gone stupid. I remember seeing too much overload of Toy Story Lego in one go and then..poof...all gone! The whole thing stank of a major cash-in and did a bit of disservice to both Lego and Toy Story in the process, not giving it time to grow or generate proper interest with kids and fans alike. Even the more recent sets of 2019 don't hold that same sense of wonder now. Shame :/

"Wait a minute, I just lit a rocket. Rockets EXPLO--" *WHOOSH*

@TheOtherMike said:
"Toy Story was the first movie I saw in the theater (was that really thirty years ago?!) which instilled in me a love of Pixar that abides to this day. I was so happy to see Toy Story Lego. My two favorite companies, coming together! This was the first one I bought."

Almost the same for me! Except in my case it was Toy Story 2, and I didn't see the first one until a friend lent me his VHS of it a couple of years later. But at the time, I dreamed of Lego making Toy Story sets - hey, if they were making sets for a property they didn't own with Star Wars, then why not TS...? - but of course it didn't happen and I forgot about the idea.

Then come 2010 these showed up, and literally postponed the start of my dark age for a year because I was so excited that what I'd imagined had finally become real!

For me, the first one I got was the 7592 Buzz; with most of my Lego purchases of the previous years having been Bionicle, the buildable figure just seemed like the obvious choice for me. That said, I was no less interested in the minifigure sets; and this one having both Buzz and Woody at a fairly cheap price, AND representing such an iconic scene? It was an easy choice for my second set, along with the buildable Zurg to match Buzz.

Eventually I sold the sets when I downsized my collection. I don't regret letting Buzz and Zurg go, but in hindsight I'm indecisive on whether I would have rather kept this one. Though if I regret anything about the TS theme, it's mostly that I never chose to buy 7593; as a big fan of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command series, that set functioned as a neat little - albeit indirect - reference to the show. Still, it is what it is... ^^

I do think it's kinda a shame that Potato Head and Slinky never got to be a part of the theme. I completely understand why, since their toy designs are both owned by other companies and would have undoubtedly complicated Lego's licensing agreement; but it still feels like a missed opportunity that we couldn't get a set based on the road-crossing scene from 2 that included all members of the rescue squad...

@Euroseb11:
My personal experience was very different. I was at a show when one of the other members came in and mentioned that the TRU down the road had Toy Story sets in stock. I immediately left to go buy them all, and had the train running on the layout the next day.

@ThatBionicleGuy:
I modified a copy of 7592 to include a cockpit where the head would go, so Buzz can use it as a giant mech of himself. And the design of 7593 is probably more a reference to the packaging for Buzz depicted in the first two films. Its inclusion in BLoSC is also a reference to that. Personally, I'm bummed at the negative backlash against, and poor box office performance of Lightyear, as it very much felt like they were headed in the direction of BLoSC at the end.

@Lyichir:
The point of the long limbs was that the standard minifig design _was_ perfectly suited to Buzz, being somewhat short and stocky. Woody, however, is tall and lanky, and when placed side-by-side, the two minifigs look very close to the pair from the film. The TS4 versions, on the other hand, look like minifigs that were based off of the characters rather than the actual characters themselves.